A Perrin Famiy Christmas!
by kiernanfan
Summary: Ben, Riley and their three daughters (nine year old Emma, six year old Ruth and three year old Mathilda) visit Riley's parents for Christmas. And everyone has a wonderful time. Sort of.
1. Chapter 1: Christmas Eve

_This was supposed to be part of my story "Variations on a Theme of Ben and Riley," and it's part of the same continuity. But I decided it was too long to be a single chapter. So I decided to post it separately in four chapters._

 **CHRISTMAS EVE**

It was a picture perfect postcard: the happy parents welcoming their daughter, her husband and their three grandchildren on Christmas eve. It was not merely a white Christmas: the snow was deeper than it had been in decades. A perceptive observer would notice that neither Mr. and Mrs. Perrin had reached 55. And because Mrs. Perrin had not bothered to pick up Ben and Riley from the Metro station, Riley awkwardly had to take nine year old Emma and six year old Ruth in a taxi, while Ben and three year old Mathilda had to use a bus. Meanwhile, the temperature was dropping alarmingly: it would only reach a high of -28c/-18F for Christmas day. Nevertheless Mrs. Perrin welcomed then in while Ben and Riley awkwardly brought in their luggage. Once Ben removed Mathilda's coat, she went up and hugged Mrs. Perrin's legs. "Me Grandma! Me Grandma!"

"Me Grandma?" asked a nonplussed Jennifer Perrin.

"Yes! You're Me Grandma because we have the same name! Mathilda!"

"Uh no," explained Ruth. "Grandma's name is the same as your middle name, Jennifer."

"Really?" Mathilda was not happy. "But I like Mathilda! And you're still Me Grandma!"

"Is she going to call me that for the next two and a half days?"

"Well, it's better than Fake Grandma," Ben said, referring to Bonnie's way of distinguishing the grandparents.

"Why do you have so much luggage?" asked Mr. Perrin. "You're leaving before noon on the day after Boxing Day."

"Shh!" Ben whispered. "Most of it are the Christmas parents. If you could take the girls to their room upstairs while I put them under the tree..." Soon the rest of the family was in the room of Riley's sister Rebecca. She was actually in the Caribbean with her fiancé, but she promised to skype them tomorrow. Her bed was large enough for Mathilda and Ruth, while Emma would sleep on a cot her grandfather had brought up from the basement. All this time Mathilda has been carrying her favorite toy, the pink elephant she had gotten for her second birthday. "This is where we're going to sleep tonight Mr. Heffalump." Just then a sharp yipping noise was heard. It was the Perrin's pet Chihuahua, an otherwise mild-mannered and lazy dog whose appearance was still enough to startle Ruth. "You have a dog. Cool!" said Emma. She turned to Ben who had joined them after putting the gifts under the tree. "Why can't we have a dog?"

"I'm sorry kiddo, but as I've told you before the apartment building won't allow us to keep one." There was a brief shared glance with Riley. Both knew that one reason the building didn't allow dogs was because Ben had explicitly lobbied them to keep it that way. Ruth was petrified of dogs, and was often allergic to them. Their apartment was too small for a pet, and Ben, remembering when Bonnie got Danny a dog and forced Ben to walk it every day for eight years, had no desire to repeat that experience. After showing Ben and Riley to Riley's old room everyone went downstairs to the living room. After the girls oohed and ahhed at the relatively austere Christmas tree, Emma played with the Chihuahua, Ruth kept her distance while Mathilda tugged at her father's arm. "You want the cards? I'll just get them from my coat."

A moment later he gave Mathilda two decks of cards which she took to the coffee table and started to take out. "So," asked Mrs. Perrin, "we managed to make sure that our daughter got a very good and very expensive legal education. And now that she's married you the best thing we can hope for our granddaughter is for her to become a blackjack dealer?"

"No. You see it turns out that Mathilda really likes playing with Lego..."

"I don't see the connection."

"...but she also likes chewing on them. And to avoid the swallowing and choking to death phases, we've encouraged her to play with cards until she gets over it." And indeed Mathilda did show a remarkable ability for a girl her age to make houses of cards. Meanwhile the Chihuahua had wandered away to sleep and Ruth and Emma had noted boxes of Christmas chocolates lying open. Ruth took one and winced: it was coconut.

"Ruth, there's a guide to the chocolates. You have to look at it first." And Emma quickly wolfed down a peanut cluster and a milk chocolate smoothie.

"Remember Mommy said we shouldn't have more than two before dinner. Otherwise it will spoil our appetite."

"Well, I'll take a third one if you won't tell," and Emma happily tossed a caramel into her mouth. As it happened, neither of their parents were watching them. Riley had gone into the study to look for a book. But when she sat down she just sort of crumpled. Ben noticed her and massaged her shoulders. "Thank you Ben."

"I thought you were so happy earlier. On the metro you were playing two minute mysteries and twenty questions with Emma and Ruth."

"I was. But I was also so tired. The whole month has been so exhausting. There's so many Christmas things, and there's so many end of the year deadlines we have to meet at the office."

"I'm sorry. I should have done more to help with the Christmas things."

"No, it's not your fault. There's the whole New Year's Eve Bar party you have to do. It's a big thing, since it decides whether we have a roof over our heads next year or not."

"Still, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about my talk with grandmother."

"Ben, you don't have to apologize about that. She's your grandmother. You're supposed to be kind to her."

"Yeah, but the first time I met after Emma was born, I learned that she had callously kicked Mom out when she got pregnant with Danny. The second time I met her she was so charming and apologetic. And all that time she was working with those crooks at your old law firm to try to get you disbarred or worse. And the third time she made an extra effort to be nice to Emma. It was bad luck I suppose that I overheard her badmouthing Ruth and Matty Jenny."

"How was she last week then?"

"Well she didn't actually do anything bad. On the other hand she didn't actually apologize for all the horrible things she's done. So I suppose it's a work in progress."

Riley took hold of Ben's hand. "You're a good man." But she couldn't suppress a sigh of exhaustion.

"Need a drink or coffee before dinner?"

"No, I can manage." At dinner Mr. Perrin asked for news about the children. "Oh, it's been a good year for all three." said Ben, and Riley clearly agreed. "Matty is a lot calmer nowadays. She almost doesn't cry at all now." Emma nodded, though she remembered four months ago when Riley and the girls all went swimming and Matty forgot Mr. Heffalump in the changing room. She screamed bloody murder for three quarters of an hour until she got it back. "Also, me and Riley are always reading to her, and we've been told that she can't read at a grade one level! Also she can now say her full name."

"Mathilda! Mathilda! Mathilda!" Mathilda said happily over her soup.

"You said you named Mathilda after the Roald Dahl novel," Mrs. Perrin pointed out.

"That's right." Ben said.

"So why is there an H in her name, when there isn't one in the book?"

"Ah. Because the clerk at the hospital thought there was, and we didn't notice the difference until a month later."

Riley spoke up. "Ruth's started grade one. She's doing very well and is one of the best students in her class."

Ruth demurred. "But the popular girls pick on me. I wish I had more friends."

Ben was sitting right by her and consoled her. "I know Ruth, but the point isn't to have the most friends, but good friends. And Xian and Amara are pretty good friends. If you are a good and loyal friend people will eventually recognize that."

"Really?"

"Really!" After all, her very existence was proof of that. "Also, Mr. Perrin, Emma's having an excellent fourth grade. She's the best student in her math class."

Emma was justifiably smug. "I showed Jonathan Chang that it's not true that only Asian boys can do Math!"

"Emma got an A- average on her last report card."

"If she's at the top of her math class, why does she only have an A- average?" Mrs. Perrin inquired.

"Well there was that science fair incident..."

"I said I was sorry!" Emma explained, or whined.

"How's your Christmas vacation so far?" Mr. Perrin asked Emma and Ruth.

Ruth's mouth was full at the moment, but Emma would have answered even if it wasn't. "Well, school only ended yesterday at noon, and it was a bit of a hassle for Mom to pick the two of us up. And daycare is closed over the Christmas vacation, but Mom and Dad are still working for most of it, so it's a bit difficult for them to juggle everything. But actually it's been pretty good so far. We don't really have a lot of room for a big tree, but we all had fun dressing the one that Daddy got. Even Mathilda helped a little. And in our Sunday School we learned Christmas treats from more than two dozen Catholic countries. And today Uncle Tucker took us to the Natural History Museum and me and Ruth were able to get in free because he was doing a special report on whether museums were overcharging children for Christmas. And Aunt Naomi took Mathilda along to the library with her own little boy. Oh, and on the Metro train over here, me and Mom had a lot of fun. She kept reading me these Two Minute Mysteries, and I was actually able to solve many of them."

"Oh, I loved reading those when I was your age."

"Yes," agreed Mrs. Perrin with a complete lack of enthusiasm, "I remember."

"And how about the two of you?" Mr. Perrin asked Ben and Riley.

"Oh work has been going well, for both of us." Ben added. "Riley has met this state legislator, Sasha Richmond, and she's been helping Riley get extra business and contacts." Ben remembered one more thing. "Baby, could you stand up?"

Riley did so, and Ben also got up: "Ta-Da!" he gestured.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Mrs. Perrin asked.

"Riley finally lost all the weight she gained when she had Matty. She weighs no more than the day I married her."

"Oh. I thought you looked scrawnier than usual." And through dinner Mrs. Perrin managed to find ways to belittle Riley's clothes, her taste in music, and the amount of money she was earning. She also didn't like Riley's hair, which as usual varied between short and shorter than usual.

Mr. Perrin spoke up. "Your hair was longer when you had Ruth. I personally liked it like that. Why did you change it?"

"Well, actually I suppose that was my fault," said Ben.

"It's your fault that your wife cuts her hair like a lesbian?" asked Mrs. Perrin.

"Let me explain," Riley offered. "After I had Ruth, I had gained some weight. And I was so busy I didn't get my hair cut. And of course, since I was nursing my breasts were larger. And I had come down with a slight cold so my voice was lower than usual."

"Where is this going?" Mrs. Perrin muttered impatiently.

"Well, one early morning in May, and you have to understand the light was poor, I had awoken and wanted to cuddle with Ben, and in that kind of light and given that he was barely awake, well, well…"

"Well what?"

"Well, I kind of reminded him of his mother."

Mr. Perrin found this very funny, and Mrs. Perrin found this hilarious, especially when Riley added that Ben had fallen out of bed in shock. "He was very apologetic, effusively so, but I decided it was time for a haircut."

Mrs. Perrin did not spend the entire dinner criticizing Riley. She also spoke about Rebecca, and not just that she was richer than Riley and that her fiancé was as well. "Do you remember when I told you about the turquoise locket that my mother had?"

"Of course, mom. It's an old family heirloom, along with a lot of other things that you especially liked when you were growing up in Connecticut. But weren't the locket and all the other things accidentally lost when the family moved to New Jersey when you were eight?"

"Yes, it was. But a few weeks ago Rebecca was in New Haven and she noticed the locket, and a lot of other things that had been packed in the same box in an antiques shop."

"So, she got the locket and everything else?"

"Well not in so many words. But she did say that she had gotten me a very special Christmas gift."

After dinner, Ben sat down to read the novel he was working on, _Victory._ "Since when do you read novels?" Mrs. Perrin snidely wondered.

"He's always been reading books." Emma replied. "I've never known him without a book."

Mrs. Perrin did not find this plausible, but went back to washing the dishes. Meanwhile Mathilda was making another house of cards, while Ruth looked at the snow outside. "Wow, it's really coming down. There's so much of it."

Emma approached her sister. "Yeah, it's an actual White Christmas. Shame it's going to be so cold tomorrow."

Ruth looked up at Emma. "I heard last week in school that the world was heating up, and that in poor countries people were going to run out of water. Soon there wouldn't be any snow. I don't understand. How could the world run out of snow?"

Emma turned her mind back to a week earlier. Riley had just had another stressful day. As she looked over yet another list that was absolutely vital to deal with Emma came up and asked her mother if there was anything she could get her for Christmas. Emma was genuinely unselfish when she asked this, but it occurred to her that it was only reasonable that she get something extra special in return...

"Actually Emma, there is one thing you can give me for Christmas. It would be beautiful if you did this for me, and it wouldn't cost you a thing. If you could just spend the next couple of weeks being nice to your sister and not do anything to upset her, that would be the loveliest thing you could do."

Emma bristled. "I'm not a bad sister! I love Mathilda, and I'd never do anything to hurt her!"

"You know perfectly well I'm talking about Ruth."

"I don't treat Ruth badly! If you looked at the Calvocoressi sisters, they're so much worse!"

"Emma, this isn't the Calvocoressi household. You shouldn't tease her so much."

Emma was about to say that if only Ruth wasn't such a crybaby. But she resisted the urge to talk back. "Fine. I promise." Now looking over her sister, Emma gently reassured her. "Don't worry about it. The world isn't going to run out of snow this winter."

"I wonder what's on television tonight?" Mr. Perrin asked. But his wife had finished drying the dishes and came into the living room. " _Meet Me in Saint Louis_ is going to start on TCM in fifteen minutes. So we're watching that." Mr. Perrin sighed. For the 11,498th night in a row, the Perrins were not going to watch his _Goodfellas_ tape.

"Didn't we all see that a couple of years ago?" Ben asked.

"Ben, Ruth and Emma have seen that _The Incredibles_ DVD 78 times since April. It won't hurt them to see this movie again." Riley replied.

And so they watched the movie. They didn't have a bad time, though when Mathilda completed a particularly interesting house of cards and Riley pointed this out to her mother, Mrs. Perrin told her to shush. When it was finally over, it was time for bed. "Those poor snowmen," Ruth whimpered.

"Don't worry Ruth, they weren't real." Emma replied.

"What?"

"It would be too expensive to take a whole year to film the movie. So those were artificial snowmen made up on the backlot. No real snowmen were hurt in the making of the film."

"Oh, that's a relief!"

"You are so gullible" Emma said to herself as they went up the stairs.

Mrs. Perrin remonstrated her daughter. "I, for one, am getting a good sleep tonight. So you are going to make quite clear to your children that we are certainly not getting up at the crack of dawn to open presents. In fact I will be very upset if I hear anything from them before 8:30."

"I'll make sure. But it is well past their bedtime." As the Perrins went to their own bedroom, Mr. Perrin looked back at the girls entering Rebecca's room. "That seems a little harsh."

More to herself, Jennifer Perrin replied. "Not really. When I realized almost twenty years ago that Riley had a crush on Ben, I thought he was precisely the sort of guy would knock her up with a bastard child." As her husband entered the bathroom and as Ben went down the stairs to get something, she muttered "But even I didn't think he would do that after he married her."

Soon the girls were in their pajamas and in bed, and after both parents reminded them not to get up too early, and certainly not badger their loving grandparents, Ben spoke up. "Well it's Christmas Eve. Time for another Wheeler Christmas tradition." And they all sang "Silent night," except for Mathilda. Nevertheless, this year she was able to hum along for the first time. Ben and Riley kissed their children good night and turned the light off.

"Psst, Emma?"

"What is it Ruth?"

"Jenny's talking to herself. How do I get her to be quiet?"

"You didn't notice that before? She always does that."

"And me and Mr. Heffalump were on the big airship and there were lots of apples everywhere and even the clothes were made of apples, and the beds were made of apples and there were lots of rainbows and even more rainbows..."

"Relax Ruth. Mathilda drops off fairly quickly."

"...and there were lots of bubbles and the airship joined other airships and they all sought the land of magic tops and Jacob's ladders and we took two apples and then..." and indeed Mathilda fell asleep.

After filling the children's stockings with special gifts that would hopefully keep them occupied until Mrs. Perrin awoke next morning, Ben and Riley got ready for bed. While ordinarily Riley wore fairly conservative pajamas in the winter, this evening, to help save on luggage space, both just wore their underclothing. "It's still snowing outside. It's very pretty," Riley said.

Ben nodded. "Whatever else you can say about New Jersey, it certainly looks a lot better under two feet of snow." They looked wordlessly at the scene outside their window for a minute. "I remember when we were first here for Christmas after we married. I can't believe that your mother insisted I sleep on the couch downstairs. I mean not only were we married, but you were five months pregnant. And I don't want to belabor the point, or your weight, but it was kind of hard to miss."

"If we'd been engaged, you'd totally be trying to sneak into my bed."

"Well yeah," and Ben gave Riley a chaste kiss. "But that's only to be expected." They turned off the lights, and got into bed. Riley was on her side, and Ben embraced her from behind. After a couple of minutes, Ben's right hand snuck under Riley's T-Shirt.

"Don't. My parents are in the next room."

"Sorry," as he removed his hand.

"You don't have to be sorry. This just isn't the right time." 


	2. Chapter 2: Christmas Day

**CHRISTMAS DAY**

"Mom, please be reasonable." Ben was talking to Bonnie at 9:02 the next morning. Bonnie had called to wish him a merry Christmas, but her holiday wishes had quickly degenerated into a complaint that Ben wasn't spending Christmas with her. "Why do you have to spend it with the Perrins?"

"Again, Mom please be reasonable. You have seen your grandchildren at least three times a week fifty weeks a year ever since they first entered your life. By contrast, Mrs. Perrin has only seen them four times this year before yesterday."

"She could see them more often if she made the effort. Sometimes Ben I feel you barely know me since you moved away."

"Mom, as you remember, instead of us living in two apartment buildings where you can see me from your apartment, I'm in the exact same building, but a floor below and on the opposite side."

"And Danny is out on the road. Who would have ever guessed that professional hockey involved being away during the holiday season?"

"Mom, do you want to talk to the kids?"

"It's like you've done nothing with me this Christmas."

"Mom, you've already shanghaied me into two pageants, leaving aside the three the girls have already been in. And there's a third before New Years' Eve."

"Danny would never complain about this."

"That's because you didn't force him to be in pageants in the first place. Look, I'm handing the phone to Ruth."

Soon, gifts were being opened, with the youngest member of the family going first. Mathilda oohed and aahed at the large package, but didn't actually open it. She smiled at the pretty wrapping paper, looked at the note on it and toyed with the ribbon. Ruth soon became impatient. "Jenny, you have to open it."

"But it's so pretty!"

"Yes, but what's inside is even better," and she helped tear it open. Inside was a box, and Ben strode over to open it for Mathilda. Inside was a stuffed toy penguin. "Do you like it Matty?" Ben asked with some trepidation, which Riley shared.

"It's a penguin! I love penguins!"

"Not flamingos?"

"Oh no! They're nasty!"

Well that's a relief Riley thought.

"Hello, Mr. Heffalump, this is Mr. Penguin. Mr. Penguin, this is Mr. Heffalump. You're going to be the best of friends!"

Ruth's first gift was a beginner paint-set. While Emma's was a video game from her uncle Danny: "Absolute Theft Maserati"

"Rated 18 and up." Ben noted. "Well, that's...an interesting choice."

"Just what we need to bring that A- average down to a C." Riley muttered to herself.

"Wow! I've heard of this game. But I never imagined that I would get it for Christmas!"

"Understandably so, since we don't own a video game console to play it on."

"Dad, I distinctly recall that we had one once. I even recall you playing it with uncle Danny and uncle Tucker."

"Yeah, we had to pawn it four years ago to pay one of Ruth's medical bills." Ben explained.

"I'm sorry," Ruth added meekly.

"Don't be," Ben said, as he kissed his middle daughter. "Your health is infinitely more precious than any video game."

"Also more precious, sleeping with Riley, which is why you don't play anymore," added Mrs. Perrin, mostly to herself, but audibly enough to Ben and Riley.

"Emma, you should give the gift to me while we think about how to find something to play it on." Riley suggested.

Among Ben's gifts from Riley was _Invisible Cities_ , by Italo Calvino. "Well that's nothing if not wildly optimistic." Mrs. Perrin muttered.

"Mom, he's read books by Calvino before."

"Really? Well, miracles never cease around the Wheeler household."

Riley's gift from Ben was a bit unusual. "What is this?"

"Well you told me once that once when you were visiting one of your uncles or aunts or whoever, there was a book of old board games from before 1930, and how much you loved that. Well I searched around the internet and found the book you were referring to. And through the magic of , I found a store that had a copy of it. And it even has all the pieces that the original book included."

"You didn't spend too much money on it?"

"About fifty dollars."

"Well that was very sweet of you." And she kissed her husband. "Look Emma and Ruth. There are dozens of games here. You could spend hours playing it."

"Most of the games look like variations on Snakes and Ladders," Emma pointed out. She found that game very boring.

"I love Snakes and Ladders!" Ruth chimed in, and Emma rolled her eyes.

"There's even a Winnie the Pooh game that Matty can play." Riley informed them.

"How?" Emma asked. "She doesn't really know how to count, so dice are useless with her."

"You don't have to use a die." And Riley pulled out a colour wheel. "You just spin it and move to the next colour."

Mr. Perrin was seven weeks younger than his wife, so he went next. To his pleasant surprise, Jennifer had gotten her husband a special and rare sports memento that he had liked but had no reason to expect for Christmas. "This is so nice. You really shouldn't have dear."

"I know I shouldn't. But for some strange reason I do anyway."

Mrs. Perrin opened the gift that Ben and Riley had gotten for her. In point of fact she had strongly suggested the new history of America in the second world war a few weeks earlier, and would find it an informative and enjoyable read in January. But she was little more than polite in acknowledging it. And so the cycle returned to Mathilda. Among the gifts opened, a windup toy for her, a collection of _Little Nemo_ comics for Ruth, two volumes of _Peanuts_ cartoons for Emma, and several books and movies for Ben and Riley were especially cherished. By this time Rebecca had appeared on Skype from the Bahamas. Blonder and more voluptuous than her sister, she wore a skimpy white bikini that showed, of course, that she did not have any stretch marks from bearing two children. But once she realized that Ben was not looking at her, she quickly put on a bathrobe. Mrs. Perrin had saved her gift for last. She was very happy to remove the wrapping and then open the box-only to find a porcelain setting, and not the locket and family keepsakes she had expected.

"It's wonderful Becky." she said unconvincingly.

"You were expecting the locket, weren't you Mom?"

"Well, I mean, actually, well..."

"It's a bit complicated, Mom. But I know you had your heart set on that. And I am trying to do something about that. Right now, I can't do that much, since it's Christmas Day, and I'm in the Bahamas. But I promise you something before New year's."

Riley spoke up. "Well, now that all the gifts are opened, I'm going to make some blueberry banana pancakes."

Ben got up. "And I'm going to make scrambled eggs and bacon."

Rebecca smiled. "And I'm glad I'm not here to eat them."

"Blueberry banana pancakes again?" Mrs. Perrin wondered.

"Mom always makes blueberry banana pancakes for Christmas," Emma explained. "She always gets up early on Dad's birthday so he can have them as well. And she also makes them for Father's Day and whenever Dad has been extra good."

Riley turned to her husband. "Ben, wipe that smirk off your face." Ben shamelessly didn't, while Riley went to the fridge and got out the blueberries and bananas she had remembered to bring along. Two years ago she had asked her mother to get some blueberries for Christmas breakfast, but her mother had just ignored her. So she had to spend Christmas eve trying to find a place that both had them and didn't close early. Ben had made a list of all the children's gifts and reminded Emma to start writing a thank you letter to all the relatives she wasn't likely to meet in the next week or so. When he entered the kitchen, he found Riley trying to break Danny's video game gift. "Damn. This is tougher than it looks."

"Do you think it's a good idea to break Emma's toys just because you don't like them?"

"Well, would you think this was an appropriate gift for a nine year old girl?"

"To be frank, it's not a good gift for a 19 year old boy. I mean spending countless hours on it made me the kind of man who could have Emma. But it also meant that I almost didn't get to be the man who could have Ruth and Matty."

"Does it have any redeeming value?"

"Well it's fairly pornographic, so it can teach her how to become a lesbian."

"Why would Danny get this for Emma?

"He probably thought the age rating was a quality rating."

Soon they were all eating breakfast. "How are the eggs?" Ben asked.

"They're all right." Mr. Perrin replied.

"They're certainly better than the pancakes," Mrs. Perrin added.

"What's wrong with the pancakes?" Emma wondered out loud.

After breakfast Mrs. Perrin washed the dishes, Ruth and Emma returned to their Christmas gifts and Riley decided to Skype with her sister. Growing up she had always wanted a girlfriend to do some of the stereotypical things that women did, like gossip and talk about their most intimate secrets. At the same time, she had said she had always thought she had everything she needed with Danny: they could talk about anything they wanted. Except that wasn't true: Danny never told her about his feeling for her, and she didn't say anything about her love for Ben until she first met Emma. Nor were they frank about their sex lives. Reflecting on this, Riley thought she would be able to talk more freely with Naomi, and this was certainly true when they first lost their virginities in college. And certainly Naomi took the initiative in arranging contraception, correctly thinking that Riley was too bashful to do it herself. But Riley was usually reticent, and Naomi wasn't the sort of woman interested in gossip. Mrs. Wheeler didn't hesitate to chatter about her most intimate secrets with Riley, but she wasn't really interested in her son's sex life except in the most general terms. At her old law firm, Riley was easily tempted to gossip with her fellow lawyers, but in retrospect their selfishness and malice was all too evident. It turned out that the person she talked the most about sex was Ben. On one hand this made perfect sense. Who else would she talk about sex over the past eight years? And notwithstanding his bluff, confident exterior, Ben was genuinely concerned about how Riley felt, and was occasionally terrified that he was doing it wrong. Still, there are some things you can't tell your husband. The problem was finding someone you could.

This came up as Riley watched Ben and Mathilda in the kitchen. One of the stocking stuffers he had gotten her was a bottle of soap bubble liquid. Ben had opened it, since Mathilda wasn't strong enough to do it herself. He told her to ask permission from people nearby before she blew bubbles, which Mrs. Perrin gave freely. Mathilda was delighted with it. Then she turned to Ben. "Daddy, can you help Mr. Heffalump blow some bubbles?"

"Of course." There was a brief awkward moment as Mathilda faced her father and her pet toy elephant and Ben wondered what to do. "Hey, is that a pixie over there?"

"Where?" and Ben blew the bubbles when she turned her head.

Watching this Riley smiled. "When I see Ben with the children, I just love him so much."

Rebecca smirked. "And sometimes when you see him with the children, you just want to screw his brains out. And then you're annoyed at your kids because they're in the way."

Riley winced. This was a good reason why you shouldn't confide your most intimate thoughts with your sister.

Meanwhile Mr. Perrin had to go out and shovel the sidewalk and driveway. Mrs. Perrin had finished washing the dishes. "And I have to go out and walk the dog. So you two have to help make Christmas dinner." Since she didn't trust either of them to cook competently, she directed them to tear up loaves of bread into thumbnail sized pieces to make the stuffing. And so the two were in the kitchen doing that, while their daughters were upstairs in Rebecca's room playing with Riley's book of board games. This was a good time for them to talk, so it was a little awkward that they didn't so immediately.

Riley thought about being a parent, and then why her two best friends weren't exactly helping on that score. She felt guilty about Naomi and her son Nathan, who was two months younger than Mathilda. To be precise, she felt guilty over envying Naomi for having such a wonderful child. She remembered the first two times that he met Mathilda. The first time he toddled over to her and gave her a hug. The second time he toddled over carrying his favorite toy. He presented it to Mathilda and said "Share!" Both times Mathilda responding by bursting into tears, and Riley had to ineffectively assuage her. She felt guilty for thinking that someone as sweet and kind as Nathan would be beaten into a pulp by school bullies. Meanwhile Danny now had his first son, and when she visited Danny, she had to constantly answer his questions and solve his mistakes. All during his wife's pregnancy she had reassured everyone that Danny had enough experience raising Emma that he would be a wonderful father. In retrospect, raising Emma for the first two or so years had been divided among five people. Clearly Danny had done the least, and he had forgotten much of what he'd done.

"It's a pity that you're so busy at the bar arranging New Year's Eve that we don't really get a chance to reminisce about the year past."

Ben nodded. "It's certainly a change from having a wild New Year's Eve, and actually making sure your New Year's Eve customers don't get too rowdy and puke all over the bar."

Riley paused. "This hasn't been a bad year. It could have been a better one." She wanted to add "and that's largely my fault," but couldn't get the words out. Why not talk about something happy? "Remember the time we were at Emma's school for that baseball game and we ended up making out in one of the classrooms? That was fun."

But instead of smiling Ben winced. "What's wrong? _I_ certainly had a great time. And I've never known men having problems with sex."

"Yes, but do you remember how we ended up there in the first place?"

"Of course I do. You dumped a big bucket of ice water on me, and I chased you for twenty minutes all over the school until I finally cornered you."

"Yeah, but there was a reason I did that."

And now it was Riley's turn to wince. Emma's team was playing baseball and was losing. As the game wore on, Riley got more and more angry and took it out on Emma. She had crossed the line, and when Ben interceded she only got more irate. And that's why Ben poured the bucket on her. "But we had other good times." Ben volunteered. "There was your birthday, for example." Ben had arranged a special little celebration when Riley, as usual, returned from a very long work day. Before they made love, they danced on the roof, watched by their adoring children. "And there was also Valentine's Day," which was much the same except they danced in their apartment. "I really liked that."

"Meh, it was OK." And Riley instantly regretted her words, since Ben had put some thought into that and up to now Riley had hid the fact that she was too tired that day to do more than fake enthusiasm. Think of something nice. "Actually what I liked was that time I got back from Albany." Not only had she got back early, but she had ordered a couple of pizzas for dinner that arrived just a minute before she did. And while the girls ate, she told them she had to talk to their father about something important. That something being going up to the roof and having sex. "I just couldn't wait." she had said.

Ben smiled, and thought over the past year. The year before he learned Riley was pregnant with Mathilda was the worst year of his life. The last few months was like living under a permanent sentence of death. Everyday he would wake up and it would be delayed by a day, or maybe two. But he was about to lose two of the three most precious things in his life and only Riley's reluctance to do the mature and responsible thing prevented that from happening. The pregnancy did not solve the problem. Manifestly it made the underlying problem even worse. But instead of having only a day or two before everything fell apart, he now had eleven months to try to find a solution. And he had the extra impetus to do so. And he did. The calendar year after Mathilda's birth was the happiest in his life. And the year after that was even better. He had faced a severe and damaging crisis, and had resolved it in a way that showed his responsibility and maturity. Or so he thought. If only Riley could work a few hours less a day and earn a few thousand dollars a year more, everything would have been perfect. But things were going so well. Emma was doing better in school, and Matty and Ruth were slowly becoming the good, happy girls he wanted them to be. And while Riley was working hard, she was slowly recovering the reputation that she had lost after the implosion of her old law firm. For the first eight months of the year he thought this was the best year yet. The family had started to go to church on a not terribly regular basis. Since it was Manhattan, the closest church was a Catholic one. Ben's family was some sort of Protestant, the kind that had not woman ministers. Riley's family was very nominally Catholic. Despite the religious differences, the church was happy to have him (though Riley had the bad luck of drawing a confessor who demanded, and got, 2,343 Hail Marys for all her sexual sins.) He remembered one early September Sunday, with the girls running around in their pretty church clothes, and he fed Riley grapes from the after service snacks.

Then nine days later he showed up at his first marriage counseling session. He was surprised at Riley's insistence. They were now actually saving real money. Why were they now blowing $250 a week on marriage counseling? To his surprise, and horror, Riley confessed that she was attracted to a new colleague at work. It had just developed over the past few weeks. The man was so literate, so charming, so gracious, so witty that she couldn't keep him out of her mind. She broke down helplessly in tears and Ben was powerless to help. The actual challenger was easily disposed of. Far from being the rich, perfect man Ben feared him to be, the ultra-Fitch he could only helplessly envy, his rival was a cynical, manipulative seducer, who specialized in married women for his own smug enjoyment. However, he made the mistake of not only arranging a meeting with Riley at the bar, since it was close to where she lived, but also of openly boasting of his achievement to Ben, not realizing the bartender was his prey's husband. But the larger problem remained. The marriage counselor suggested that such tensions were normal in a marriage, and that Riley's quick reaction showed her fundamental loyalty. Riley was extremely apologetic, especially for the previous nine years she had so often been jealous whenever Ben talked to an attractive woman. But Ben wasn't happy. Clearly he had been complacent. And the more he thought about it, the worse it got. The problem wasn't physical. Despite owning, and enjoying, his own bar, he was scrupulous to the point of mild neurosis about his weight and exercise. No, the problem was that despite taking care of three children and working very hard at a job that didn't fully reward her talents, Riley Perrin was a beautiful intelligent woman who someday would get the full recognition she deserved. He didn't doubt that. So when that did happen, why would she stay with him? I just have to do better, he thought back in September. And then he realized that was similar to what Boxer the horse kept saying in _Animal Farm,_ which Riley had gotten him to read as part of their book club, before the pigs in charge sent him to the slaughterhouse and turned him into dog food.

Just then, Ruth and Mathilda entered the kitchen. "Jenny won the Winnie-the-Pooh game!" Ruth said brightly.

"Is that what we were doing?" Mathilda asked.

"Yes, we were running a race, and because you spun the right colours you reached the end first."

"Oh." Mathilda considered this. Then she jumped up. "Yay!" Mr. Perrin came in, shivering from having cleared the sidewalk and driveway. "Good Lord, it's cold outside. It's cold enough to freeze the balls..." and then he noticed his grandchildren, "...that a mechanical ball bearing machine makes."

"Nice Save, Mr. Perrin." said Ben, as the two of them finished tearing up the loaf. That didn't stop Mrs. Perrin from assigning all other sorts of kitchen tasks, and several from outside the kitchen just as well. "Oh, your uncle Thomas and his family are coming for dinner." Mr. Perrin's younger brother was five years younger, had married seven years later in his life, and had his only child five years later in his marriage than Robert Perrin did. Therefore Constance Perrin was only 16. As their parents were busy Aunt Margot appeared on Skype to talk to the girls. "Please don't tell them please don't tell them please don't tell them." Riley fretted.

But as it happened Aunt Margot was only mildly stoned. "That's odd. None of you look like me at all."

"Why would we?" Emma asked. "You're only our great aunt." Once Margot logged off and Mrs. Perrin talked to Rebecca again, Ruth moped a little. "I wish I was blonde."

Emma immediately objected. "What's wrong with brunettes? Brunettes are awesome! Beyonce is a brunette! Michelle Obama is a brunette! Most important so are we!"

"But blondes are prettier and better and that's why they're more popular."

"Where would you get an idiotic idea like that?"

"Grandma Wheeler said so."

"Of course she did."

"I wished we looked more like Mom. She's so pretty."

"The two of you do look like Mom. Let's go the bathroom and look in the mirror." Once there Emma put Mathilda on the toilet seat so she could look in the mirror. "See. You two's hair may have Dad's colour, but the texture and flow are like Mom's. And you both have Mom's nose."

"I prefer Dad's nose," Ruth complained

"Oh, and here's another thing. Mom has a birthmark just below her belly button, and so do you two."

"How do you know that?"

"You can see it the next time we all go swimming. Oh, and here's another thing. Take a look at the iris."

"What part is the Iris?"

"It's the part that's coloured." And after making sure that Mathilda could see her eyes in the mirror, Emma continued. "See? Me and Mathilda have Dad's eyes and you have Mom's. But we all have the same specks in the iris. We get that from Dad. That's why people can tell we're sisters." Ruth smiled and gave Mathilda a reassuring hug. (A decade or so later the two younger Wheeler sisters would find that, in distinct contrast to Emma, they had inherited another thing from their mother: her smaller than average breasts.)

"Right now Mathilda is too small and you're still too nervous. But in a few years, once Mathilda is big enough to go to school, we'll be like the kids in 'Bob's Burgers.' Only instead of one cool youngest daughter and two weird older siblings, we'll all be three cool kids, because you'll all benefit from my incredible brilliance."

Ruth thought about this for a moment. "Mom says we're not allowed to watch 'Bob's Burgers.'"

Emma bristled. "OK, for this cool thing to work, you've got to be less of a killjoy and less of a tattle-tale."

The afternoon wore on. Mathilda tried to use the cards to make a penguin. Ruth brought down the computer chess game she had gotten for her sixth birthday and showed it to her grandfather. "Now I can play with myself all day long."

" _By_ yourself, Ruth." Ben corrected. "By is the correct preposition." Mrs. Perrin kept Ben and Riley busy, but the two had some down time. Emma saw her father reading. "What's the novel you're reading about?"

"It's about a strong man who lives alone on an island somewhere in Indonesia, and he's confronted by bullies who want to hurt him and his girlfriend. That's as far as I've got."

"So the hero is strong like you?"

"Not strong like me. More strong like Grandma Wheeler, though more reasonable."

Emma nodded and saw Riley reading a cookbook. She was thinking about making a sauce. "Can I help?" Emma asked.

"Of course you can." Meanwhile Mrs. Perrin was taking some free time to play chess with Ruth. "Ruth, I'm baking a special surprise tonight. What do you think of apple pie?"

"It's nice."

"Only nice?"

"I'm sure it will be very good."

"I thought you loved apple pie."

"Actually it's Jenny who loves apples."

"Did you say apples, Me Grandma?" Mathilda asked. "Oh no!" And she upset some of her cards. Eventually Uncle Thomas, his wife Cate and cousin Constance arrived. They brought some gifts for the Perrins. At around 4:30 they settled in for an early dinner.

"The turkey is very good, dear," Mr. Perrin said to his wife.

"You're welcome."

Later on Uncle Thomas added, "I liked what you did with the cauliflower."

"Remind me later to give Cate the recipe."

Later still Cousin Constance finished the sweet potatoes. "They're very nice Aunt Jennifer. We don't really eat sweet potatoes at home."

"Yes, well what I did with them takes a lot of work."

Later still Mr. Perrin tried the sauce his daughter made. "This new sauce is quite tasty." Riley's face brightened.

"You're welcome dear," Mrs. Perrin replied.

Eventually they had dessert, which included apple pie with ice cream. "Daddy, can I have more than one slice?" Mathilda asked.

"You can, if there's some left after everyone has had a chance to have some. And if you're still hungry." But as it happened Mathilda was full after one slice. After dinner and after all the dishes were washed and put away, the two Perrin brothers and their families sat and chatted. Constance was curious about Riley's legal practice and asked about her cases.

"Oh, why don't you tell her about the time you sued Ben!" Mrs. Perrin spoke up.

"That's not exactly what happened."

"Tell me anyway!" Constance begged.

"OK, shortly after Mathilda was born, I received a referral from someone who thought I could handle a sexual harassment case. There was this young woman who was working in a bar..."

"Ben's of course," Mrs. Perrin redundantly pointed out.

"Well, that wasn't immediately clear. Now to understand what happened you have to understand that sexual harassment law isn't just demanding sex at work. It can mean an unhealthy work atmosphere. Like some supervisor keeps making racist comments but doesn't direct them at one particular individual, that individual can still sue. It also means that if someone benefits unfairly because of sex or sexual discrimination the people who lose out arguably have a case."

"I don't understand," a curious Constance asked. "Why was your husband picking on this woman?"

"He wasn't. But there was this other woman who he was constantly flirting with, even though she was heavily pregnant."

"And who was this cheap slut?"

"Well, it turns out it was me."

"You?"

"Well work was a little light since we were moving into a new office. And the maternity leave pay would have been low in any case. Meanwhile, they were a few staffing vacancies at the bar. So, why not kill two birds with one stone, Ben thought."

"So the person who was suing..."

"The plaintiff."

"Yeah, the plaintiff didn't know that you were both the lawyer and the main evidence against Ben? And she didn't realize that you two were married?"

"Well the situation had some other complications. It was very confusing."

"So once you realized the problem, it was easily solved?"

Ben spoke up. "Well actually, although we were doing much better financially then during the previous two years or so, babies have a lot of up-front expenses. And so..."

"I'm not following."

"Well on the one hand, it was a very silly case. But on the other hand, she did offer a _very_ generous retainer." And everyone burst out laughing.

Later on the conversation turned to family Christmas traditions. And Constance asked about her cousin's. "Well, we live in an apartment, and it's fairly small. So we can't do as much as other people can. By contrast, Ben's parents always went full out for Christmas."

"Yes," Mrs. Perrin noted. "You could almost say they were vulgar about it."

Ben piped up. "But we're trying to make up our own Christmas traditions."

"I thought your main Christmas tradition was leaching off your children's grandparents." Mrs. Perrin snarked.

Ben ignored her. "There's Christmas pageants me and the girls are in. This year Ruth was the second King, the one with frankincense. And Mathilda played a shepherd who hugged a toy sheep and was very quiet. For the last few years we sing 'Silent Night' when we put the girls to bed on Christmas Eve. And for the past couple of years we read 'The Little Mermaid,' to Ruth for bed on Christmas Day."

Riley chimed in. "My favorite fairy tale was 'Cinderella,' but Naomi pointed out that this was a better one. We tried to make a tradition of singing 'All I want for Christmas is You,' but Emma suspected that was just an excuse to cut down on the number of presents."

Later still the topic turned to doing something other than conversation. "We could watch _Goodfellas._ " Mr. Perrin suggested.

Mrs. Perrin immediately vetoed the idea. "If I wanted to spend Christmas evening with some Italians, I could have invited one of the half dozen families who live within a five block radius. None of whom, I might add, are sociopaths. No, I think me and the girls will play cards."

"Tom, we can go downstairs to watch it. Are you going to join us Ben?"

"Actually Mr. Perrin, tonight's my night to teach Mathilda to read." And so the Perrin Men and Perrin Women went their separate ways, while Ruth upstairs to play with her new paint set and Emma flipped through the television surprisingly quietly. After an hour of reading to Mathilda, Ben was interrupted when Riley tapped him on the shoulder. "Ben, I was wondering if you could help me."

"Sure, what's up?"

"We're playing poker, and it occurs to me that I could use a little help."

"So you're losing and you need my advice?"

"It's more like I've lost $300 more than we can comfortably afford."

"Why so much money?!"

"We're very competitive. And I don't know the rules very well."

"OK, I'll see what I can do." Ben got up and Mathilda followed him. "Daddy, can I have another piece of apple pie?"

"Sure. Let's check and see if there's any left." There was, and Ben put a slice in the microwave while getting some ice cream out. Mathilda ate it happily while Ben joined the poker game. Once Mathilda finished Riley called out to Emma to see if she could find something on television that they could both enjoy. Eventually the evening wound down. Mathilda and Ruth were in bed and Ben read "The Little Mermaid," to them. Emma was allowed to stay up twenty minutes later as long as she didn't keep her sisters awake. "It's a little cold in the room, especially in my cot." she pointed out.

"Is it? It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow. I'll get you another blanket," said Mrs. Perrin.

Ben and Riley were getting ready for bed. "I've read it to Ruth a dozen times, but I still can't get over how different the original fairy tale is from the movie." Ben pulled out the $150 he had won tonight. "This money will come in very handily in the future."

Riley snatched the money from his hands. "Actually this is going to fill the all consuming hole of our credit card debt first thing on the 27th."

"Well it was nice to pretend otherwise." 


	3. Chapter 3: Boxing Day

**BOXING DAY**

Most of the family were going to spend the day near a park which they could enjoy the winter weather. There were even some hills nearby so the girls could go sledding. As the girls ate their cold cereal, and Ben prepared some toast for them, Riley entered, and moved a little awkwardly. "Is something wrong?" her mother asked.

"I'm not feeling as well as I could."

Mrs. Perrin felt Riley's forehead. "Well you don't have a fever."

"No, it's more something with my stomach. Like I ate something wrong."

"Are you nauseous?" Ben asked.

"Maybe it's a baby!" Emma guessed.

"Where?" asked both her sisters, with Mathilda getting off her chair and looking under the table.

"Emma, your mother isn't pregnant," Ben corrected.

"No, I think I just need to lie down a little after breakfast." Riley poured herself some cereal and started eating.

"Does that really help?" Mrs. Perrin inquired.

"What? Oh yes, it does. Thank you for asking."

Mr. Perrin returned from walking the dog, who then went in a corner and slept, having spent most of the night and evening sleeping as well. Mr. Perrin was going to spend the day at various boxing day sales. As the children brushed their teeth, Mrs. Perrin Skyped with Rebecca who went on about how lovely the Bahamas was yesterday. "It's so wonderful that you're happy." her mother replied. Meanwhile, Ben prepared some snacks so that wouldn't have to come back for lunch. Mathilda was wondering whether to bring along both Mr. Heffalump and Mr. Penguin, while Ruth helped her grandfather fish out the sled from the garage. Emma was flipping through the television channels, somewhat annoyed since the channel listings were different from the ones in Manhattan. "How's the weather Mr. Perrin?" Ben asked.

"It's about 14 F" (Or -10 C)

Soon Mr. Perrin drove off the car to go to a nearby Mall. Meanwhile Ruth and Emma were getting slightly impatient with their grandmother who was still Skyping. She, in turn, as also impatient when she abruptly stopped and the children weren't immediately ready. Ben quickly smoothed any frustrations, and soon they were close to leaving. "Ben, are you leaving?" Riley called from upstairs.

"Yeah, almost. Are you feeling better?"

"Actually, I'm just a bit under the weather."

"Well, you know where we'll all be when you feel better."

"Ben, I don't want to be all alone in the house. If you could stay with me..."

Ben looked at his mother-in-law who sighed and accepted this turn of events. "OK. I just have to dress Mathilda and I'll be with you shortly."

The girls were soon outside. Ruth placed Mathilda on the sled along with Mr. Penguin and started to pull it. She then realized it was heavier than she thought it would be, and Emma came and helped her. Mrs. Perrin joined them and they all started walking the few blocks to the park.

"Are they all gone?" Riley asked when Ben entered her bedroom.

"Uh-huh. They just crossed the street. You can see them out the window." He turned to Riley who was lying on the bed. "Is there anything specifically wrong with you? Would you like some tea? Do you just need a nap? Maybe I could get..." but Riley interrupted her husband by reaching out and embracing him.

"Riley?!"

"Duh! I'm not really sick! I'm just pretending to be so we could have some time alone."

"So just to be clear, your hard-working and endlessly tolerant mother is going to take care of our three rambunctious children just so that we can fool around for an hour?"

Riley was embarrassed. "Well kinda."

"Works for me." And he took off his sweater and joined Riley on the bed.

Half an hour later, Ben closely held Riley and lightly touched her smiling face. "Riley, have you ever thought about having another child?"

Riley's mood soured immediately. "Is this something that I have to immediately worry about?"

"No, no, still not possible. For both of us. But I read somewhere that in the next five years or so, they'll be able to reverse vasectomies and tubal ligations."

"Ben, no offense, but why would you want to? We already have three children in a very small apartment, and for the next nine years at least, they're only going to get bigger."

"I know it's not the most practical idea..."

"Well, no, not remotely."

"But look. I'm 31, while Danny just had his first child at 34. He could easily have his last one when he's 40, which means he'll be taking care of his kids until he's 58. But when I'm only 46, Mathilda will be off to college."

"So? Why would you want to keep doing that?"

"I mean people tell me, well not very often, but occasionally, that I'm a good father."

"And you are."

"But that's _all_ I am. I mean being a bartender pays the bills and I'm competent at it. But once the kids are grown up, it's not much to peg my life on. It's not like being a lawyer, where you can really work my mind. In time, you'll really be someone people admire. Not just your friends and family, the whole city, maybe the whole state. But without the girls, I'm not much of anything."

"Ben why would think that? There's so much you can do once you don't have to spend much of your waking life looking after kids!"

"Hmm. Maybe I could get a college degree."

"Let's not go nuts. Paying for three kids' education is going to be trouble enough."

"I told you Sanders should have won."

"I mean look on the plus side. People think you're a great father. That's more than they say about me."

"What? I say you're a great mother all the time. And sometimes it's not just to have sex with you." Riley laughed and Ben kissed her. "Look, the kids love you."

"Well yes, but they don't know any better."

"Danny and Tucker say you're a great mother."

"Yeah, but they're not really the best judges."

"But Naomi says you're a good mother."

"But her son is so kind and wonderful, and he can almost read more than Matty Jenny can."

"But Ruth and Emma's classmates' parents think you're a good mother."

"Actually many think you're doing most of the work, what with your schedule and attending meetings."

"Look, who is badmouthing your paren..." and then Ben realized the answer. "Look, the best thing we could do right now as parents is get dressed and have a fun Boxing Day with our children. Let's see." And then he noticed his T-shirt behind him on the pillow. "Oh, there it is. How many times do you think we can fool your mother with this trick?"

"I'd say once. Or less."

About half an hour later, Ben and Riley rejoined Mrs. Perrin and the children at the park. "It's a good thing we came later," Ben said, bringing along the snacks. Mrs. Perrin winced at forgetting them, and briefly glared at Riley for reminding her of her failure. The kids were happy. Mathilda was learning how to make snow angels. Ruth was playing on some jungle gym equipment. Emma was making snowballs and throwing them at a tree some distance away. Mathilda got up and called out to Mrs. Perrin. "Look, me Grandma! Look what I did!" Mrs. Perrin nodded indifferently and Mathilda then ran to the jungle gym. She climbed up to the lowest level and circled its wooden square in triumph. Ruth climbed off the gym and walked around. Ben looked around and wondered what to do. Then an idea came to him. He went over to Emma and gave her advice on how to throw snowballs better, leaving Riley with her mother and the other two daughters.

"There's a lot of snow around Emma. You know there were a couple of times when I was your age when we built snow forts. There often wasn't enough snow, but when your grandparents were kids there was more and they had a lot of fun."

"There some kids over there trying to make one. It's a shame we're going back to the city tomorrow."

"Yeah. Maybe kids will make one at your school."

"Maybe. But then the school will probably tear it down because it's a danger risk."

Ben frowned. "Well that sucks. Don't tell your mother I said that."

"Don't worry Dad. I got your back. Hey look at that!" And Emma pointed to Mathilda walking on a snow drift. Although it was very deep, the snow was crisp enough and Mathilda light enough that she didn't fall through. Meanwhile Riley was pulling Ruth along in the sled looking for a hill to go down, while Mrs. Perrin followed behind. "This hill looks a little steep."

"Oh for heaven's sake Riley, you can be such a wimp." And Mrs. Perrin kicked the sled down the hill. Once it reached the bottom she tried to prevent Riley from helping get the sled back up again. "It's an important life lesson. Pleasures involve lots of tedious work just to get a few seconds that are often more frightening than enjoyable." Notwithstanding this, Ruth went up and down the hill several times, and Emma joined her, while Ben watched Mathilda and Mr. Penguin. Mrs. Perrin was soon bored and started calling people on her cell phone.

As the day wore on Ben and Riley got the snacks out for their children. Once they were finished Mathilda said she needed to go the bathroom. Ben took it upon himself to find a place and eventually found one without any embarrassing incident. As they walked back, Ben saw Emma and Ruth with several other girls at the jungle gym. But then he saw Emma push a girl a year younger than herself down to the ground.

Ben raced over and put Mathilda down. "Emma what are you doing!? That's not how you treat people!"

Emma turned to Ruth. "Tell Dad what this girl was asking you to do."

"The girl said she would give me a surprise if I licked this metal pole."

Ruth was completely ingenuous when she said this. "Is this true?" he asked the girl and her friends. The girl and her clique nodded shamefacedly. "Then you should count yourself lucky that you faced Emma instead of me." The clique quickly retreated just as Riley joined them. She had been distracted because her mother had been lecturing her about financial advice, and then lectured her further when she found Riley didn't have the savings to take advantage of the advice in the first place. Ben explained the situation. "Still Emma, you shouldn't push people like that." Riley admonished.

"Quite right. It's not like you're your mother pushing me around like we were kids."

"I don't understand," Ruth wondered. "Why was Emma so upset?"

"Ruth, if you had licked the pole, your tongue would have stuck to it in the cold." Emma explained. "You'd have to pull it off and you'd lose some of your tongue." The children took to other activities. Ruth decided to make a snowman. Mathilda was curious about how hockey worked. Riley explained the basic rules, and Ben made a snowball that served as a makeshift puck. Emma noticed a fallen tree branch and brought it over to Mathilda, who used it to push the snowball/puck a few feet. Satisfied she then sat down on a park bench.

"Uh no, Matty Jenny." Riley explained. "You see in an actual hockey game there are several big players trying to push the puck into the other side's goal with sticks. It's very exciting."

Ben spoke up. "Let me show it to you better. Wheelers vs the Perrins. Me and Emma will be one side, and your mother and grandmother will be another."

"No, I don't think I'll bother." said Mrs. Perrin, who was clearly bored. So Ben and Emma played against Riley alone, who said she could beat them single handed. There weren't enough sticks so the game of ice hockey soon turned into a game of snow soccer, before the ball fell apart after repeated kicks. Emma then got the inspiration of pulling along Mathilda and Mr. Penguin in the sled. She noticed that there was a skating rink nearby and thought she could push Mathilda across the ice. But the rink was still covered with snow from yesterday. And her parents vetoed the idea of using the parking lot. But they still found other enjoyable things to do.

Meanwhile Ben tried to engage Mrs. Perrin in conversation. "The kids are so active. What was your favorite sport as a child?"

"Swimming."

Riley spoke up. "What was your favorite thing about winter days like this?"

Mrs. Perrin thought. "I liked the hot chocolate and marshmallows we had at the end of it. There was this special recipe that I loved."

"That sounds wonderful. We should make some when we get home. It hasn't been cold enough before now to make it this year but the children would love having some."

"Well there isn't any cocoa or marshmallows at home. I actually haven't had any hot chocolate since I had Rebecca. And I haven't made any since before Rebecca graduated from high school." Mrs. Perrin thought some more. "Also, I completely forgot the recipe." As the afternoon wore on, Ben and Riley tried to engage Mrs. Perrin in conversation, with the same awkward and inconclusive results. Eventually however Ruth yelled "Mommy!"

"What is it dear?"

"I can't push this snowman anymore." And well she couldn't, since it was now absurdly big. "You should be proud Emma." Ben said. "That's a very big ball you've made."

"All she's done is make a very big ball." Mrs. Perrin pointed out. "It's getting late. And a second ball would be too heavy for her to lift onto the first."

"You know what? If we all chip in we can make a proper snowman together." And Ruth started to make the third ball that would be the snowman's head, while Ben, Riley and Emma all made their own balls they would combine to make the second ball. Mathilda sat on the bench and talked to Mr. Penguin, while Mrs. Perrin looked impatiently at her watch. Fortunately, it didn't take long to complete the snowball with everyone working together. It was now getting dark and Ben carried a drowsy Mathilda, while Riley pulled Ruth in the sled.

Once back at home Emma asked what was for dinner. "Leftovers, obviously." Mrs. Perrin replied. "The whole point of cooking a ridiculous amount of food on Christmas is not having to cook anything for the next three days afterwards." She went into the study and started Skype with Rebecca. After a couple of minutes Rlley knocked on the door. "Riley what is it? I spent all day with your children. Can't I spend five minutes with my other daughter?"

"I was just thinking I might make a souffle for desert." Such a souffle was Mrs. Perrin's favorite desert.

"Really? Well you'll have to get the ingredients yourself. I don't feel like making another grocery run just for you to get them."

"Umm, OK."

"And you'll have to go quickly. The stores are likely to close soon."

And so she did, and after some stressful racing about the neighborhood to get the ingredients was soon busy trying to make it. Ruth entered the kitchen and tugged at her shirt from behind. "What is it?" Riley barked. Ruth drew back and Riley instantly realized her mistake and reached out to comfort her. "I'm sorry Ruth. You just startled me." Ruth showed her mother a painting she had made from her paint set. It showed the three sisters with their parents and their grandmother out in the snow. "That's very pretty Ruth. I'm trying to make a special dessert from Grandma, but you can show it to the others."

So Ruth went into the living room and showed it to everyone. "There's Mr. Penguin!" Mathilda happily pointed out.

"Good job Ruth" added her father.

"Nice work, Ruthie" Emma agreed.

"Oh, that's very nice," Mr. Perrin added, who had finally come home after indifferent success at boxing day sales.

"I do _not_ look like that," Mrs. Perrin said to herself, who was still on Skype with Rebecca and had been for more than an hour and a half.

Indeed Becky was the main subject of conversation over the dinner of reheated leftovers. It certainly wasn't the souffle, whose flaws Mrs. Perrin didn't hesitate to point out. But she was actually very happy about Becky. But the fact that she had gone out of her way to get the locket over the last two days, notwithstanding that she was in the Bahamas, was especially worthy of praise. Mrs. Perrin spoke with special emotion about her own mother, who had died suddenly of a heart attack a year and a half ago. Jennifer Perrin's father had died of a stroke when Riley was only 12, and in the point of moving things around much of the family heritage had been misplaced and apparently lost forever. Even more striking was the locket itself. "I remember when I was Ruth's age. One day I had returned from school and showed her my first report card. She was proud of my marks, and she sat me down on a chair, and told me to wait. A few minutes later she returned wearing the locket. She told me the locket had been given to her by her own mother as a wedding gift. In turn it had belonged to my mother's maternal grandmother who had tragically died in childbirth, and who insisted on her deathbed that it be given to my grandmother who was then five years old."

"What's so special about the locket?" wondered Ben.

"What my mother told me that day, wasn't just that the locket was a family heirloom. It was to be given at a moment of special love for a daughter. That's why my mother got it when she was married, and her mother got it when her mother was on her deathbed."

"What if you don't have a daughter?" Emma asked.

"Then you give it to a sister, or a niece or an aunt or a cousin or somebody else," Mrs. Perrin almost snapped. "The point is that when the locket was lost my mother was heartbroken. And not just at the time. She felt sad when I was married, she felt sad when my father died. But she was saddest of all when I just had Becky. She came into the hospital room where I was holding her sleeping in my arms, not even a day old. She told me she was so happy, and that Becky was so beautiful. And we spoke about that for a few minutes, and then she said she wished she had the locket so that she could give it to me right then. And then she broke into tears."

"What about when she had Mom? She is older," Emma inquired, but Ben told her to shush.

"The point is that once I have the locket back I can give it to Rebecca at her wedding."

"So you've been asking Rebecca to spend her Christmas vacation running around getting this locket, and then you're just going to give it back to her in less than five months?" Mr. Perrin wondered.

"Yes! It would be so sweet!" And there were tears in her eyes.

After dinner Ruth brought down the big book of games and tried to get Emma to play one of them. Emma was not really interested, but couldn't find a way to say no without being rude and breaking her Christmas promise. Meanwhile Mathilda had found a toddler's book that used to be her aunt's and looked at the pictures. Meanwhile Mr. Perrin talked with his wife. "If you took the trouble to watch it once, I'm sure you would like it."

"But you just watched it last night with your brother!"

"You can watch it more than once."

"But the language! We have three granddaughters who don't need to know the words!"

Meanwhile Riley looked over her upcoming schedule and entered the living room. "Ben, you have an appointment to give blood the Friday of next week."

"Thanks, I was wondering when that was."

"Since when do you give blood?" Mrs. Perrin asked.

"Well, this is the only the second time. I thought it would be a good idea to get into the habit. You can do it every 56 days."

Mrs. Perrin said nothing and went to the study. Ben was going through the TV channels looking for a schedule. "What are you doing baby?" Riley asked.

"I'm trying to find a movie that your mother might like."

Riley frowned. "Give the remote to me," she said with determination. A few minutes later she knocked on the study door. "Mom, _Little Women_ starts at 8:30. Would you be interested in watching it with us?"

"Which version is it?"

"It's the one with Wynona Ryder and Susan Sarandon."

"Oh that's a good one. I remember taking you to it and you not appreciating it at all."

Well I was only four at the time, Riley thought. But after spending the interceding time reading to Mathilda while Ruth and Emma played a board game commemorating Nelly Bly's journey around the world in the 1870s, soon the entire family was watching _Little Women._ "This family has no testicles whatsoever," Mr. Perrin said to himself.

"I'm sorry, Matty, but it is past your bedtime." Ben said about fifteen minutes into the movie. "Get into your pajamas and we'll join you in a few minutes."

But aside from that interruption, watching the movie was actually a pleasant experience. Ben was happily surprised that he liked the movie so much. Ruth contentedly watched it, while resting in her mother's lap. When the movie actually ended Riley kissed her daughter. "Time for bed, darling. You were a little sleepy weren't you?"

"I guess so. But I liked it. I wish I had a third sister."

Riley picked up Ruth and carried her upstairs to bed. "Ruth, there's no way your father and I can guarantee that. And remember, you'd have to share your bedroom with her. It's already fairly crowded with the three of you already."

"I suppose so. Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"How come there were four sisters at the beginning of the movie, but only three at the end?"

Riley thought for a minute to come up with a convincing lie. "Well, it was a very long movie. And movies are very long and complicated things to make. Maybe the directors mislaid her."

One problem Riley and Ben had successfully managed was how to arrange three separate bedtimes for their children. As such Ben gave Emma some more time with the television after she and her sister had gotten into their pajamas while the Perrins got ready for bed. While Riley was saying a quiet goodnight to Ruth and not waking up Mathilda, Emma turned from the television to her father. "Is there something wrong with Mom?"

It has been such a long day that Ben almost forgot that Riley had pretended to be sick in the morning so that she and Ben could have sex. "Well, she was a little under the weather this morning, but you can see she's all better."

"That's not what I meant. Sometimes she doesn't seem happy."

You really are my daughter. You're just like a Wheeler. You can be blindly oblivious and self-absorbed but then realize that someone you care about is hurting. Ben wondered how to approach the problem. He didn't want Emma to worry, but he also didn't want to be complacent. "You know that your mother wasn't the happiest girl when she was your age. She wasn't a popular kid, people teased her for being fat. But your mother was strong, and she adapted to that. And one of those ways was doing well at those things, like schoolwork, where she didn't depend on fickle children to praise her. And as she grew up, she continued to work hard and she continued to get that praise. And then she not only graduated from law school, and not only passed the bar, but she also joined a prestigious law firm. Now this was particularly gratifying. Graduating from law school is not a license to print money, despite what you might have heard. Most graduates either are in small firms, don't practice at all, or enter some other profession. So entering her law firm, in Manhattan of all places, was very gratifying indeed.

"But there was a problem. Several of the lawyers there were very dishonest. They were very bad people, and when they realized they were going to be caught, they tried to frame your mother. But they didn't succeed. Instead, your mother made sure they were punished. But as a consequence the firm collapsed, and your mother had to take a new job at a considerable loss of salary and prestige."

"Is that why Mom's an ambulance chaser? Like Paul Newman in that old movie we saw a couple of months ago?"

"Your mother is not an ambulance chaser. She's a public interest lawyer."

"What's the difference?"

"Well do you remember that housing discrimination lawsuit Mom won earlier this year? If she was just an ambulance chaser she would have been paid in contingency, and we could have bought a four-bedroom condo."

"A four bedroom condo?! In Manhattan?! Holy sh-"

"Emma!"

"Sorry. But to be fair, I didn't actually swear."

"Look, sometimes your mother needs to be reminded that she is all that she can be. And sometimes that requires the praise of people who are least likely to give it. And right now, that's a little tricky."

"Would it help her if I was kinder to Ruth?"

"Emma, you shouldn't be kind to your sister because Riley and me want you to."

"I shouldn't?"

"No, you should be kind to Ruth because you love her."

Emma grimaced. "Well, I just walked into that one."

Soon everyone else was in bed, and after looking over the things she would have to do the first thing in the morning, Riley joined her husband in bed. "This was a pretty good day. The girls all seemed to be happy." Ben said. Riley murmured something. "They were all right? Ruth didn't say something when I was talking to Emma?"

"No, it's all good." But she turned away from him when he turned off the light. Ben kissed her good night, but the sense of unhappiness was still there. Why can't your own mother love you, he thought. 


	4. Chapter 4: December 27

**DECEMBER 27**

Riley started the day by making sure she had a coherent schedule to make sure that everything was packed and taken care of so that they could leave without any fuss. Later she went to her special place so that she could relax when things inevitably went wrong. Emma thought that after two and a half days Ruth would be used to the pet chihuahua and they could play with him. She thought wrong, and had to fulsomely apologize when Ruth still wasn't comfortable with dogs. A couple of weeks ago Mathilda had first heard of the idea of hide and seek, and a stray remark from her grandfather led her to think they were playing it. So Ben had to spend twenty minutes trying to find her. Riley nervously wondered whether Mathilda might have hidden in such a way as to maim herself or worse. Mrs. Perrin thought that threatening her toys might be a good idea, but Ben dissuaded her. As it happened, it was her gentle coaxing that finally got Mathilda to emerge from her ingenious and not at all dangerous hiding place.

Since Mr. Perrin's car only had four seats, the idea was that he would drive Riley, Emma and Ruth to the metro station. Then, Mr. Perrin would go back, and pick up Ben and Mathilda. This involved finding a child's car seat in the garage, which took some time. It also involved some interruptions as Mr. Perrin had to take some calls. Meanwhile Ben and Riley went over the gifts they all had gotten and tried to check them off. But there were delays: Emma had in fact written her thank you letters, but had forgotten where she put them. In the course of finding them, Ben and Riley also found gifts which, it turned out, had not been properly packed. As Ben walked down the stairs having solved this latest problem he noticed Mrs. Perrin in her study on her laptop. She had been chatting with Rebecca. "Ben, I'd like to talk to you."

"Sure, Mrs. Perrin. What about?"

"We've had a nice Christmas, but I can't help notice a certain tension between us. I know we haven't had the most open or warm relationship. And it could be said that I'm not the warmest of people..." Just then Riley walked by. "Oh Riley come in. This concerns you too. And close the door behind you: your children don't need to hear this." Riley did so. "Now everyone knows I haven't been the most indulgent of parents towards you. We're not like the Gilmore girls, nor should we be. And I don't believe in being effusive and sentimental. But I feel that something has been left unsaid, and I don't think I've said this enough." Riley brightened as she waited for the compliment. "Look at me having trouble getting the words out. I'm being silly. But here goes. Riley, I need to tell you this. Your husband is, all things considered, surprisingly adequate."

"Adequate?"

"Relatively so. Let's not go overboard on this."

"Adequate!?"

"I mean, when I learned that you still had a crush on him and there was a serious chance that you wanted to devote the rest of your life to raising his bastard daughter, I thought 'God, my daughter's a sucker.' And there's no question that marrying Ben is a major lapse in judgement on your part. He clearly was lazy and aimless in school, and how he's just a mediocre bartender. But on the other hand, how much can we reasonably expect for you Riley? Fitch, obviously, was completely out of your league. And not only would it be wrong to be sleeping with your boss, but you would never have been able to pull off such an awkward relationship. And Danny would have grown out of his seven year self and realized how irritating you can be. Philip was nice. He was cultured and literate and you would have to work hard to keep him. And you would spend your time around university professors and learned to read more books. Yes, Philip really would have been the best for you. It's such a pity that you were too stupid to keep him. Poor Philip...what was I talking about again?"

"You said you were going to say something nice about Ben, but then decided to insult the two of us."

"There's no need to be rude Riley. Now I remember. Ben is clearly adequate. He's rarely the drunken buffoon he so often was as a teenager. And Ruth and Matty seem fairly agreeable. Of course when they grow up you'll have to watch them very carefully so they don't take after their sluttish paternal grandmother. Do you know the best thing about you Ben? Although you're flippant and irritating in many ways, you do realize that you'll never do better than Riley. In many ways that's as good or better than actually loving her. And you are genuinely nice to your children. They're not half as stupid as I thought they might be."

Mrs. Perrin then waved the two out of her study. "Well, that wasn't quite the epiphany we were looking for." Ben commented. Riley grimaced and muttered through clenched teeth "I'm going to sit in the car if anyone needs me."

But that was easier said than done. For a start, it was distinctly colder than the day before, and Mr. Perrin didn't want to waste gas or damage the environment keeping the car on. Then Ruth joined her mother in the car and they had a few chilly minutes of mother-daughter bonding when Ruth realized she had to go to the bathroom. And there were more delays on Mr. Perrin's part. And to top all this, after more than a week of being good Mathilda went into one of her crying fits. Ben managed to calm her down to get her to explain why. It turned out that she was crying because her crying was making everyone else unhappy. Riley returned to the house and paced waiting for all the little snags to finally resolve themselves. But as she was walking past the study door she found Mrs. Perrin crying.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"This is just like you Riley. It's just like you to gloat."

"Excuse me?"

"You're going to make the obvious point. I devoted all my love to my real daughter and she acts selfishly and betrays me. While the daughter who isn't my real daughter constantly tries to get my love and shows she's the better daughter. You're going to remind of that. Or you're going to be especially and ostentatiously forgiving and that's going to make me feel even worse. That's so like you Riley!"

Riley was about to ask what had brought this on when Ben walked by. "What's wrong Mrs. Perrin?"

"It's Rebecca," and she started crying again. Slightly recovering, "Remember the locket I told you about? Rebecca told me earlier today that she had finally tracked it down and that it would be here for New Year's. But she was lying."

"What?"

"It turned out that she bought the locket in New Haven. Then she realized it was valuable, sold it on E-Bay and has been searching for a cheap substitute. That was what she was going to send to me. She boasted it to a friend and didn't realize that I could overhear her on Skype."

"Wow," Riley softly said.

"Ben, where are the girls? I don't want them to listen to what I want to say next." Ben turned to the girls who were in the kitchen. "Emma, Ruth, in the basement there are some of your mother's and aunt's children books. Why don't you take Mathilda downstairs and show them to her. We're going to be here a few minutes." Once they left, Mrs. Perrin resumed. "Riley, have you ever wondered about my wedding?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well you all know that Bonnie Wheeler had a shotgun wedding and had Danny on her 18th birthday. You were born a year later. I'm only a couple of years older than Bonnie. And I'm not white trash like her..."

"Umm, her son is right in front of you." Ben pointed out.

Mrs. Perrin ignored him. "...and me and your father were attending university. Didn't it strike you as strange that we got married at 20. That's much younger than college educated upper middle class women of my generation."

"Actually Mom I did think about it when I was 15. I saw some wedding photos and I thought you looked a little pudgy. So I thought you got married because you were pregnant with me. But all the records, the announcement in the paper, the wedding souvenirs all made it clear that the wedding took place exactly when everyone said it was. And all the other records made it clear that I was born eleven months later. And later I learned that Aunt Margot was my actual mother. So I thought you just got married unusually young."

Mrs. Perrin summoned deep reserves of strength. "I got pregnant three months before the wedding. We arranged everything very quickly. I felt extremely guilty for what I had done. I also hated myself for being so stupid. And I knew that everyone was gossiping right behind my back. And the thought that they were, that a cheap slut like Bonnie Lyle could be laughing at me..."

"Again, her son is still right in front of you." Ben reminded her.

"...was more than I could bear. I wished that somehow, someway it would go all away. And then six days before the wedding, I had a miscarriage."

There was a silence. "It was a miscarriage. I had done nothing to induce it. Your father, bless him, said it didn't change anything, and we went ahead with the wedding. But now I felt incredibly guilty. And to make things worse, as we spent our wedding night in the hospital because of complications, my gynecologist said we could never have any more children."

Both Ben and Riley were stunned, and Mrs. Perrin immediately realized they had got the wrong impression. "Oh, he was an idiot. It turned out that I could have children. Rebecca is certainly my daughter Riley. You remember me going to the hospital to have her. But anyway, when I got married, I felt I had thrown away my one chance to be a mother with my selfish wish. So when a few months later I learned that Margot was pregnant with you and we wondered about the alternatives, the possibility that you could be the daughter I should have had was too perfect to pass up."

Mrs. Perrin sighed. "And for the first year of your life Riley things went well. I mean you cried a lot and it drove me crazy. And I was even more determined to finish my college degree. That was very time consuming, there was a lot of pressure. And the more pressure there was, the more I hated Margot. I mean I didn't hate her, but I despised her because she was lazy, she didn't use her full potential, she was irresponsible, she didn't appreciate the sacrifices my parents made to hide her pregnancy so people would think I was the mother. She was supposed to breast feed you for the first few months and she was especially unhelpful in being around to do that. And I was really angry when she confided to me that she didn't actually know for sure who your father was.

"It was a couple of years later, after I had graduated, that motherhood started to curdle. Once Margot left and floated through the rest of her life without responsibilities, I wanted to advance and become the professional I could be. But I couldn't, because the jobs I wanted didn't accommodate mothers with young children. So I had to do part-time work and other things to help the family. And I was very good at it and made a reasonable amount of money. But not half as much money if I didn't have you. It was one thing to make these sacrifices later for my own daughter. But to make them for my sister's bastard at times filled me with rage.

"And the worst thing..." and now Mrs. Perrin started to weep again, "...was when I would look at your two old your self in what was still a sort of crib and sometimes I would see the cutest little angel. But then I would get up at night and I would look you at you whining and then I'd think, my daughter is dead. And this horrible little cuckoo had taken her place." And she burst out crying. But she still managed to talk. "And every time I thought I saw Margot in you, I stamped it out. I couldn't stand the thought that after all I had done, I would end up with another her, mocking me and all the hard work I put in you. I even fed you more so you'd be fat and you couldn't be as slutty as your aunt."

Not only was she still crying, but she couldn't look at the two of them. "So now you're going to tell me I'm a horrible mother, and I deserve having my birth daughter betrayed me. Or you're going to ostentatiously forgive me, just to remind me that I'm a horrible person. Or you're just going to do nothing and let me stew in your own guilt." And now she couldn't stop crying.

Well this is awkward, Ben thought. Riley really needed her mother to tell her she admires and respects her. And instead _she's_ the one having a meltdown. Ben took a deep breath and emptied his mind. Then he spoke. "Mrs. Perrin, I know you don't admire me or even respect me. But if it's any consolation, nobody thinks Riley is remotely like her Aunt Margot. And not simply because you've done an incredibly good job making sure no one finds out. You have made Riley Perrin the woman she is today, and you have made her the woman that her family and friends love. And that matters more to me than almost anything."

" _Almost_ anything?" snapped Mrs. Perrin, who had stopped sobbing.

"I do have three daughters. They're also incredibly important. I know you wish for better things for Riley, things I can't provide. But I am very grateful for Riley, and for that I thank you."

There was a silence. Then Mrs. Perrin took some Kleenex, wiped her eyes and generally composed herself. Then she stood up and looked at Ben. She almost smiled, and thought of hugging him. Then she though against it, and just shook his hand. "You're welcome." Should I tell him that I know Riley loves him and would never leave him? No, he'd just get complacent. I'll wait till their 20th wedding anniversary. No. Make it their 25th. She then turned to her daughter and embraced her. "Have a good New Year."

"I love you Mom."

"Of course you do. You're a good girl." And then an idea came to Mrs. Perrin, one that would come into fruition nearly seven years later at a very special occasion for Riley indeed when her mother presented her with the real locket, right in front of her embarrassed sister.

Soon, Riley was off in the car with Ruth and Emma and Ben was getting Mathilda ready to go. Mrs. Perrin watched him doing so. "Where are those stuffed toys you carry with you everywhere?"

"In the car." She was holding the bottle of soap bubble liquid. "Me Grandma, can I blow some bubbles?"

"Of course you can." And Ben unscrewed the top and Mathilda blew some bubbles in the vestibule. Soon Mr. Perrin was back and was putting the child car seat in. "I love you Me Grandma!" said Mathilda as she hugged Mrs. Perrin.

Tears came to Mrs. Perrin's eyes. "I love you too." Ben regretted that Riley wasn't here to see this, but he had the foresight to record this scene with his phone. Soon he and Mathilda rejoined the others outside the bank where Riley had used their Christmas poker winnings to pay off their credit card debt. Everyone thanked Mr. Perrin and there were several hugs before he drove away. Just before they went to the Metro with their luggage, Riley rested her head on Ben's shoulder. He held her and kissed her above her ear. The new year would be a better one.


End file.
